1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to steering devices, and particularly, to a steering device in which an airbag body of an airbag module is accommodated in a center pad of a steering wheel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, there is known a steering device that accommodates a folded airbag body in a center pad of a steering wheel and protects a vehicle occupant from an impact generated due to a collision of the vehicle with another object by deploying the airbag body from the center pad toward the vehicle occupant in response to the impact.
The center pad of the steering wheel normally rotates together with the steering wheel in accordance with a driving operation of the vehicle occupant. Therefore, the airbag body accommodated in the center pad is formed into a circular shape so that the airbag body can be deployed in the same shape at any steering angle of the steering wheel. The circular airbag body mainly protects the vehicle occupant's head.
In recent years, there is an increasing demand for the airbag body accommodated in the center pad to sufficiently protect not only the vehicle occupant's head but also other body parts. In particular, because a seatbelt extends across the vehicle occupant's chest, there is a possibility that the vehicle occupant's chest may receive high pressure during a collision.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2006-069384 discloses a vehicle airbag device that can sufficiently protect not only the vehicle occupant's head but also other body parts. In this device, an airbag body is installed in a non-rotating center pad, and the airbag body is formed with a shape having a head protection section, a chest protection section, and an abdomen protection section.
As mentioned above, in JP-A No. 2006-069384, since the airbag body is installed in the non-rotating center pad, the center pad is not rotated even when a rim of the steering wheel is rotated by the vehicle occupant driving the vehicle. In other words, in JP-A No. 2006-069384, only the rim of the steering wheel is rotated when the vehicle occupant is driving the vehicle.
In JP-A No. 2006-069384 in which only the rim of the steering wheel is rotated by the vehicle occupant driving the vehicle, it is difficult to ascertain whether or not the steering wheel is rotated. Thus, there is room for improvement since the feeling of security for the vehicle occupant is reduced.
Therefore, although the shape of the airbag body that can protect not only the vehicle occupant's head but also the vehicle occupant's chest and lumbar area can be set in advance in JP-A No. 2006-069384, the feeling of security for the vehicle occupant is reduced, which is a technical problem in terms of reduced level of safety when the vehicle occupant is driving.